Middlemarch (novel)

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Middlemarch , 1871

The novel Middlemarch (1871–72; first in book form: 1874) by the English author George Eliot is one of the most important novels of the 19th century in the Victorian era. In 2015, 82 international literary critics and scholars voted the novel the most important British novel . The original title of the novel is Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life .

the novel

The author (George Eliot is the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) describes a typically English small town around 1830, in the age of the beginning industrialization . The name of this fictional small town is "Middlemarch". The four different storylines create a multifaceted picture of English society at that time. The more than 800-page book deals with all areas of life that are still important to us today: human relationships, love, intrigues, the individual in relation to society, religion, art, science. George Eliot makes reference to numerous historical events in the novel. Mention is made, among others, of the Reform Act 1832 , a law which changed the constituency of the British Parliament for the first time in nearly 150 years; the increasing construction of railway lines; the death of George IV and the subsequent accession of his brother William to the throne .

The novel's remarkable character studies are realistic: the "heroine" of this educational novel, but above all also historical novel, Dorothea Brooke, is idealistic and inexperienced. In her desire to do good and to sacrifice herself for others, she is compared to St. Theresa of Ávila . She marries Edward Casaubon, an elderly, hypothermic scholar who has been working on his major scientific publication for years without realizing that research has long since caught up with him. She wants to help him with his scientific work, but he does not allow her to participate and is condescending to her. Here, as in the character portrayals of other female figures, there is a clear criticism of George Eliot of the poor education that women of that time were given.

After the disillusioning experience of this marriage, after Casaubon's death, Dorothea marries the man she loves against the will of those around her: the young artist Will. She learns to find her place in Victorian society. Here, too, the author criticizes - albeit indirectly - the subordinate role of women.

The stylistic devices of the novel include friendly, ironic comments by the authorial narrator, who shows the characters' typical human weaknesses; these comments are strangely modern at times.

classification

In 2015, Middlemarch was voted the most important British novel by a large majority. 42 percent of the non-British literary scholars and critics surveyed by the BBC named him among what they considered to be the ten most important novels. Geordie Williamson, the literary critic of the Australian newspaper , explained his choice by pointing out that this novel was shaped by a warm understanding of human follies and weaknesses. Wall Street Journal literary critic Sam Sacks called the novel the greatest psychological novel ever written in the English language. The writer George Scialabba described the last sentence of the novel as the most moving in British literary history.

expenditure

  • Middlemarch . Edited by David Carroll. With an introduction by Felicia Bonaparte. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998, ISBN 0192834029 .
  • Middlemarch, a study of provincial life. Translated from English by Ilse Leisi, epilogue by Max Wildi. Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1962, ISBN 3-7175-8002-7 .
  • Middlemarch. A study of life in the province . Translated from English, with comments and an afterword by Rainer Zerbst. Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-150-28080-X .
  • Middlemarch. A study of life in the province . Translated from the English by Rainer Zerbst. Revised new edition with a foreword by Elisabeth Bronfen . dtv, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-423-28193-5
  • Middlemarch. A study of life in the province . Novel. Edited and translated from English by Melanie Walz . Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-498-04537-1 .

Arrangements for theater and television

Middlemarch has been adapted several times for television and theater, but has not yet been made into a feature film. The British director Sam Mendes had considered a similar project in 2007.

As early as 1968, the novel was processed by the BBC into a television series of the same name. The novel was filmed again in 1994 by the BBC and broadcast as a six-part series from January 12, 1994 to February 16, 1994 on British television. The main actors were Juliet Aubrey (Dorothea), Rufus Sewell (Will), Robert Hardy (Arthur Brooke), Douglas Hodge (Dr. Lydgate), Michael Hordern (Peter Featherstone) and Patrick Malahide (Rev. Edward Casaubon).

The opera Middlemarch in Spring by Allen Shearer is based on a libretto by Claudia Stevens. The libretto focuses on the story of Dorothea Brooke and the number of characters has been limited to six. The world premiere took place in 2015 in San Francisco .

literature

  • Middlemarch in the twenty-first century. Edited by Karen Chase. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York, 2006, ISBN 9780195169959 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ a b c d Alison Flood: The best British novel of all times - have international critics found it? In: The Guardian. December 8, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Alison Flood: The best British novel of all times - have international critics found it? In: The Guardian. December 8, 2015, accessed on January 2, 2016 (English): "[to read the novel] is to encounter an intelligence wholly sympathetic towards, and wholly unsurprised by, human foibles and frailties"
  3. ↑ Lindesay Irvine: Mendes to direct mini-Middlemarch. In: The Guardian. April 23, 2007, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Jerry Roberts: Encyclopedia of television film directors. Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland), 2009, ISBN 9780810863781 , p. 105.
  5. ↑ Joshua Kosman: Opera review: 'Middlemarch in Spring' is a sunny romp. In: Sfchronicle.com . March 21, 2015, accessed November 22, 2019 .